Cannabis CARNAGE: Cheap available pot is linked to more stoned teenagers and more road crash deaths

The wider availability of legal, cheaper cannabis is matched by a rising number of teenage users and more road crash deaths, especially at nights and weekends when booze and weed are mixed, researchers say.

A RAND Corporation study set to be released next year will show that the growing availability of cheap medical cannabis is linked to a roughly 8 percent increase in use among those aged between 12 and 17.

Rosanna Smart, the economist who led the study, also warned that states that legalize pot for recreational or medical adult use also witness higher rates of traffic fatalities involving young drivers.

'As medical cannabis markets expand in size, we see higher rates of adolescent use of cannabis,' Smart, who studies crime, drug policy, and policing for the research group, told DailyMail.com.

'Our findings suggest this partly results from lower prices and increased availability in medical markets are spilling over to markets supplying cannabis to youths.'

Her 16-page study, The kids aren't alright: The effects of medical marijuana market size on adolescents, also notes a 6 percent increase in road crash deaths among those aged 15-20 living in big cannabis markets.

The increases are particularly stark at weekends, nights, and especially in cases when young people mix a cocktail of weed and booze and are more likely to drive dangerously and are more likely to lose control of their vehicles.

Policymakers need to think twice, said Smart.

Her results raise questions about the 'tradeoffs of state policies allowing large-scale cultivation and broad retail availability of cannabis' and how the laws and policing around cannabis affect young people, she added.

The study follows research earlier this year from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which noted a 5.8 percent rise in traffic crashes in Colorado Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada after those states legalized cannabis and 'pot shops' sprang up.

Overall, the five named states saw a 4.1 percent rise in fatal crashes. The increases were not universal. The worst-affected state, Colorado, saw a 17.8 percent jump in crash injures. In California, incidents rose by 5.7 percent.

Earlier this month, a leaked report from Washington state showed how the potency of cannabis sold on America's streets had jumped from 4 percent to more than 15 percent in recent years, raising the risks of addiction and psychiatric disorders. 

The draft document from the state's Health Care Authority showed how the levels of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot, found in drug-bust seizures had risen steadily since the 1990s, thanks to the breeding of powerful plants.

A RAND Corporation study notes a 6 percent increase in road crash deaths among those aged 15-20 living in big cannabis markets

The leaked document featured research from the federal government's National Institutes of Health on the potency of cannabis samples seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration and by state and local police agencies between 1995 and 2021.

A cannabis concentrate ready to be consumed in Denver, Colorado, one of the first US states to legalize recreational pot. These products, often called 'dabs', can have close to 100 percent purity of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot

 Last month, Maryland and Missouri voters approved midterm election ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, while those in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota rejected similar measures.

With the addition of Maryland and Missouri, 21 states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults over the past decade — even as it remains illegal under federal law.

Experts have cautioned against America's speedy switch to legalized pot, amid a growing body of evidence that widespread availability leads to increased use, particularly among young people, together with addiction and mental health issues. 

Stress from the Covid-19 pandemic has also driven up the number of users. 

Teenagers are lured by colorfully-packaged candy-like products that leave them vulnerable to higher rates of dependency, psychosis and school dropouts, researchers warn. Pictured: child-friendly cannabis gummy packaging

The National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) annual survey in August found the number of under-30s using marijuana hit record levels last year — which the agency's boss Dr Nora Volkow called a 'concern'.

The $30billion cannabis industry argues that taking the drug — either smoking it, vaping it or as an edible — can help relieve feelings of anxiety or depression, chronic pain, and even help fight addictions.

The US Cannabis Council, a major lobbying group, says legalization is widely supported, that pot is safe and can help addicts beat opioid and alcohol dependency.

But in states where pot has been legalized, many parents say their children have been sucked into an addiction spiral.

America's $30 billion legalized cannabis industry is causing an 'explosion' of teen users

Teenagers in states that have legalized cannabis use more of it and are lured by colorfully-packaged candy-like products that leave them vulnerable to higher rates of dependency, psychosis and school dropouts, researchers warn.

A DailyMail.com analysis of research focusing on California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and other states that have legalized recreational pot shows experts warning of a 'potential explosion' of under-aged use — and more youngsters using it than in states where it's illegal.

Renee Goodwin, a psychiatric and substance use epidemiologist who leads Columbia University's research, says teen cannabis use grows faster after legalization  

They are alarmed by the weak oversight of a $30 billion business and warn of a free-for-all market in which super-strength cannabis products are sold in cartoon-covered packaging that attracts youngsters, even as tobacco and alcohol firms are barred from targeting youths.

Data from the 19 states that have permitted recreational pot this past decade, as well as the 38 states that allow medical use, indicates that teens and young adults there are using stronger products more often.

Not every teen who eats a pot gummy sees their life unravel. But they are more prone to addiction and dependency than adults, and greater availability and use means more cases of anxiety, depression, psychosis and even suicide.

In November, voters in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North and South Dakota will decide on whether to liberalize their own cannabis laws — and let windfall pot industry taxes flow into state coffers.

'Cannabis use is more common among youth and adults in states where cannabis use is legal for recreational use,' Renee Goodwin, who leads Columbia University's research, told DailyMail.com.

'Legalization has moved from a social justice issue, to the other extreme of big business commercialization without any of the same restrictions that tobacco and alcohol now need to follow.'

Mary Maas, 57, from Washington, which legalized weed in 2012, told DailyMail.com how her son Adam, 26, spiraled into a devastating addiction to super-strength pot products worlds apart from the 'Woodstock weed' she recalls from the 1960s.

Now, she looks at the potent oils, vapes, dabs, drinks and gummies sold at a growing number of dispensaries, as well as the down-and-outs living in tents under Seattle's I-5 highway, and urges other states to heed Washington's lessons.

'They'd better watch out,' she said.

Adam Maas, 26, with his family in Washington. Mom Mary, 57, describes her 'straight-A student' getting hooked on super-strength cannabis products and ending up delusional, jobless and sleeping rough in Seattle